THIS General Election was going to be a coronation for Theresa May, sealing the UK into the domination of the extreme right for decades to come. But it’s not turned out exactly according to the plans of Lynton Cosby and Theresa May. The past week has been a bad week for the right wing, which means it’s been a good week for everyone with a functioning ability for empathy and compassion.

After calling a General Election which she described as the most important election of her life, and then making the main theme of said election me/myself/I/my/mine, good poll ratings for Theresa May are disappearing faster than Theresa herself when confronted with a studio audience that hasn’t been hand-picked by Conservative Central Office. Until now, all the polls have predicted Conservemaygeddon, and all Theresa had to do was to put in a few appearances at carefully staged press events, mouth a few robotic platitudes, and possibly sit on the sofa of The One Show with her husband talking about taking out the strong and stable bins.

Unfortunately for Conservative Central Office, answering strong and stable to every single question hasn’t made the Prime Minister come across as strong and stable at all, all the more so when Theresa has done more U-turning than a slinky on Ben Nevis. The robotic soundbites and stiff and forced delivery made her seem as though she had less programming flexibility than a frozen computer screen, although you can at least reboot a computer. Unfortunately it’s not possible to restore Theresa May to factory settings because she deported the IT specialists who wrote her coding in the first place.

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Theresa’s plummeting poll ratings have a great deal to do with her arrogance and hubris. She wants the public to trust her, but she clearly can’t trust the public. She is, quite literally, demanding that we put all our faith in her and no questions asked. When you make an election all about your own character, it doesn’t look at all good when you hide away from any opportunity to allow the public to discover what your character is like. After all, if you’re insisting that the main point of this election is leadership, specifically, your leadership, then it doesn’t say much for your leadership when you can’t even be bothered to turn up and lead a debate. When an election is ostensibly about the quality of your leadership, you should at least do the electorate the courtesy of allowing them to cross examine the organ grinder and not just some monkey.

This week a poll from YouGov claimed that we’re now in hung parliament territory. It’s all a long way from the heady days just a few weeks ago when Theresa walked on water and was going to bury Jeremy Corbyn at the bottom of the Marianas Trench. Those public appearances which are not stage-managed and carefully shepherded make Theresa May seem as uncomfortable and out of place as a group of Orangemen and neo-fascists at a rendition of Ave Maria sung by an immigrant choir. But enough about Scottish Tory councillors. What we’ve learned is that Theresa May doesn’t like politics. She likes power. She likes telling everyone what to do. She certainly doesn’t like being held to account, which is a worrying sign in a supposedly democratic politician who is demanding carte blanche to define Brexit as she pleases.

Jeremy Corbyn, on the other hand, has shown every indication that he’s actually enjoying himself during the campaign. He’s jolly and engaging, even when he’s cheerfully undermining Kezia Dugdale’s attempt to out-Unionist Ruth Davidson. Although the polls are tightening, most still do show that there’s very little chance of Jeremy becoming the next Prime Minister. That’s a shame, because he’s managed to look more Prime Ministerial over the past week or so than Theresa May has, although that says more about the woefulness of Theresa’s performance than anything else.

Meanwhile that other darling of the right wing, Nigel Farage, has found himself in the spotlight because, according to reports, he’s a person of interest in the FBI’s investigation of links between the Trump campaign and Russia. Nigel has vehemently denied that he’s a person of interest to the FBI, pointing out that up until now the only people he’s been a person of interest for have been the production staff of BBC Question Time. Current Ukip leader Paul Nuttall isn’t at all pleased with the revelation that his predecessor could possibly be a super-spy, licensed to shill for Trump, since it detracts public attention from Paul’s previous career as James Bond.

This election is likely to be the end of Ukip, and all the BBC Question Times in the world are unlikely to save them from oblivion. They’re surplus to requirements now that the Conservatives have stolen their clothes and are campaigning for a hard as nails Brexit and are demonising immigrants with an enthusiasm that even Nigel would have baulked at. Just as Margaret Thatcher once described Tony Blair as her greatest legacy, Theresa May is Nigel Farage’s. That’s all the more reason why next week it’s incumbent on all of us with a functioning sense of empathy and compassion to get out and vote to keep the Tories out.

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